The coal showdown reflects the German government’s floundering shift to renewable power.
If the government doesn’t show it can carefully balance climate protection with affordable and secure power, “it’s going to be a big challenge keeping voters on board,” said Kippels, 58, during a tour of his district where he’s increasingly struggling to defend Merkel’s energy policy.
In last year’s federal election, support in the district for the populist AfD more than doubled. Backing for the far-right party nationally has since surged and is the second strongest in some recent polls. — Bloomberg, 27 September 2018
Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Tuesday said that the government commission on phasing out coal should not set a date prematurely for the end of coal-fired power generation in Germany. At the Day of German Industry in Berlin, Nahles said a coal exit date is impossible without the security of supply, competitive electricity prices and future perspectives for the affected regions. These priorities must be adhered to by the Coal Commission. —Deutsche Presse Agentur, 25 September 2018
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn the ire of climate activists, and her own environment ministry, after she came out publicly yesterday against an idea to raise proposed EU car CO2 limits for 2030. The final reduction requirement will depend on a vote by the European Council, the EU’s upper chamber made up of representatives of each of the 28 member country governments. However yesterday Merkel publicly contradicted her environment minister, telling a conference of the German industry association BDI that the Commission’s proposed 30% should be maintained. She said a higher target would risk seeing automakers move production outside of Europe. —Forbes, 26 September 2018
Angela Merkel has been blasted as a “lame duck” by members of her own party in an unprecedented rebellion which threatens to tear down the German Chancellor. After 18 years of being at the helm of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Mrs. Merkel faced an “uprising” when MPs booted her right-hand man out of office. —Daily Express, 27 September 2018
The French Government will drastically reduce the growth of its renewable spending in 2019, with the ecology ministry’s draft budget showing a 1.3% rise, which will effectively be flat after inflation. The move will force France to seek alternative forms of energy after last year France had to import UK coal power to fuel the country as temperatures plummeted in the winter months. —The Energy Advocate, 26 September 2018
The head of the United Nations blamed lack of leadership Wednesday for the world’s failure to take tough decisions needed to stop global warming, warning that a key goal of the Paris climate accord is at risk. —Associated Press, 26 September 2018
If Germany wanted reliable electric energy while reducing use of fossil fuels (I will not call CO2 a pollutant!) then Merkel wouldn’t have shut down the nuke plants and instead would work to add more nuclear power plants. Instead they went with unreliable “renewable” energy that consumes vast amount of land while doing nothing to provide low-cost and reliable energy. Talk about ignorance!